Category Archives: Off-the-grid

Time to prepare a garden.

This year it is only about 24ft by 24ft.

There are also garden boxes around the deck.
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As I get ready to sell this land I have decided to write a semi-fictional account of getting this land and what happens after as I take to the woods to live illegally on government land.  Here’s the introduction.

The Woodsman

Edward D. Clark, Jr.

“Freedom’s just another name for ‘nothing left to lose’”

“It ought to have been different, but oftimes you will find,
That the story doesn’t always go the way you had in mind.”      -from Jeremiah Johnson

This is the story of a man who only wished to live in nature.  But he soon learned the system today is setup to prevent exactly what he wished for.  Taxes and  a myriad of Government regulation all conspire to keep people from checking out of society.  The Land of the Free has become the land of controlling every aspect of your life.  People believe they own their land.  Wrong.  They are renting it.  Just try not paying your taxes (rent) and see how much your land belongs to you.  I can hear the comments, ‘but taxes pay for your roads and other services’.  True but you can not opt out of using these services, even if you have no car or drivers license.  You are still required to pay for those services for other people.   And in most country areas the school taxes are the highest percentage of taxes paid.  I won’t go into my thoughts on school taxes.  If I could at the time I would have home schooled my daughter.  But even when you do that you still have to pay for other people’s school if you “own” your own home. 

So I just lived by the rules that were lined up against me.

Once my daughter had grown and moved off on her own I decided to try for my dream of living in the wild.   I bought a few acres of land.  The land already had a 12 x 16 foot shed and a well with and electric pump.  No electricity or sewage.  The cost of the land didn’t leave me much money left to build a cabin. And the township and state codes made it too costly to make very many improvements.  I focused on the 12 x 16 shed.  At a minimal cost I insulated it, installed windows, put up drywall, built a porch and put in a wood burning stove.  I’m sure I needed to get building permits and inspections but that would have put me far over the top in funds so I just ignored them, hoping nobody would notice.  I got a generator in order  to operate the well pump.  Since putting in a sewage system based on the government regulations would have cost more than all the land initially cost, and regulations said a simple  outhouse was not legal, I made a simple composting toilet.  I think it was legal except I’m sure it needed to be inspected, but I wasn’t going to give them a chance to reject it.

So I sat there living on my land, probably breaking several laws just living.  And I paid my taxes to the township who could have shut down my entire operation at any moment or at least would soon raise my taxes because of the illegal improvements I made to the land.

So, since you don’t actually own the land anyway, and since having the deed requires you to pay the government rent, but not having the deed means you don’t have to pay for the roads and services, I decided to try another way to check out.  …

It’s sure looking like an early spring.  I hope it stays.

I even cooked my lunch on the porch.

Nothing fancy.  Just cream of celery soup and crackers cooked on my propane heater/cooker.

I even brought my car up beside the cabin.…

I had a wreck caused by dehydration causing me to black out. (syncope) I was in a parking lot so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  I’ll cover a problem I discovered with too much pine needle tea.  I’ll cover that later.  I have done some repairs so the car is drivable.

BEFORE

AFTER

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Some of you may wonder how I write and post pictures “off the grid”.  I cheat. I am off the wired grid but I still have cell service and a generator.  Cell service is sporadic and I usually need to go outside to connect.  But for writing I have these.

That is an 8 inch Ellipses tablet and a tiny Bluetooth keyboard.  And behind that is a paper notebook and a couple of pens.  I can also watch downloaded episodes of Grizzly Adams on the tablet.…

The very basic start of my outdoor workshop.

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